Shē 畲 Language

(3,628 words)

Article Table of Contents

1. General

According to the 2010 census (National Bureau of Statistics of China 2013), the Shē (Chinese Shē 畬) minority has a population of 708,651, and is distributed throughout the mountainous regions of the southeastern provinces of Ānhuī, Zhèjiāng, Jiāngxī, Fújiàn and Guǎngdōng. Today, more than 99% of the Shē people speak either a distinct variant of Hakka (known as Shēhuà 畬話) (Nakanishi 2010a) or the indigenous Chinese dialect of the place where they live. The rest, approximate…